Page 25 of The Christmas Fix
She fluttered her lashes at him. “Because I’m just a pretty face?”
“Yeah,” he said without a hint of embarrassment. “A pretty face who makes a living in front of the camera.”
“I’m more than just my face, Noah. And the more is what gets shit done.”
Noah eyed her warily. “I guess we’ll see. I brought you a coffee. Not to be nice but because it’s polite.”
She made a grab for the cup he offered. “I’m accepting your thoughtless gift not because I think you’re generous but because I need caffeine to survive.”
“Coffee truce,” Noah nodded.
“For the next fifteen minutes.”
“I can be polite for fifteen minutes.”
“I guess we’ll see,” she said, turning his own words against him. “So, you had questions about the Christmas Festival itself.”
“Yes. Namely how you expect to make up an entire month of tourism revenue in just a day. You’re not exactly Santa Claus.”
“No, but I am a very organized, very dedicated miracle worker. No one says no to me.” She shifted into business mode. She’d spent her entire career dealing with men who underestimated her. She’d always proven them wrong before, and she’d pull out all the stops here in Merry just to wipe that doubting smirk off Noah’s face.
Cat called up a document on the laptop and sent it to the dinosaur of a printer she’d found in the school’s abandoned office and lugged back into the classroom she considered her temporary office. The show’s budget was so strained that the addition of a new printer could implode the whole damn thing.
“This is a draft of the plan,” she said, handing him the sixteen pages. “I’ll refine it more this week before finalizing. So, if there’s something in there that’s an issue, I need to know ASAP.”
“And if I have a problem with something, you’ll do what?”
“Listen politely to your concerns and take great pleasure in explaining to you why everything will work in terms a three-year-old could grasp.”
“Are you trying to make me take my coffee back?”
“Mine,” she said, her fingers tightening on the cup. “Here are the highlights. Thanks to the attention from the show as well as a series of Facebook ads and geographically targeted social media posts, we’ll remind everyone in the tri-state area about the festival. We’ll be shooting, a lot of it B-roll—in layman’s terms, supplemental footage like crowd shots, downtown video that gets cut into the main interviews and filming.”
“You think people will want to come to the festival just to be on TV?” he asked.
Cat grinned. “Uh. Yeah. Supporting a great cause that we’ve spent four weeks selling them on and the chance to be in the finale? You’re going to have thousands of people show up here on Christmas Eve.”
Noah harrumphed and continued skimming the pages.
“Marketing is going to design posts for all of your vendors and retail shops who utilize social media so Merry can help us spread the word. I’ve already spoken to several store and restaurant owners who say they’ve been bombarded with messages and emails from past visitors. We can leverage that interest by guiding those visitors to the show and reminding them that this is going to be one hell of a holiday party that no one wants to miss.”
“That actually isn’t a horrible idea,” Noah admitted.
“Of course, it isn’t.”
“What about Christmas Eve?”
“Christmas Eve is going to be business as usual for Merry and a clusterfuck of epic proportions for the crew. We’re going to be shooting the tree lighting in the park, one-on-ones with both Merry citizens and outsiders, the band and dancing, Santa Claus,” she rattled off the scenes they’d already decided to focus on.
Noah raised a finger. “About the tree lighting.”
She interrupted. “I know. The tree that’s been decorated for fifty years went to tree heaven in the storm. I’m working on it. We’re hoping to make Christmas Eve a mega event that will attract people from all over. It’s a feel-good story and they’re going to know that every dollar they spend on hot chocolate and presents and cookies is going right back into Merry’s economy.”
“It’s still not going to be close to what we’d bring in during a normal year.”
“Which is why the week after Christmas is going to be huge. The lights in the park will be accompanied by fireworks every night, and we’ve got confirmations from three musical artists, that I’m not allowed to name yet due to current negotiations, who will be performing concerts in your park that week. We’re going to fill the heart of every Grinch viewer with so much Christmas spirit, Merry will be synonymous with Christmas for the next five years.”
Noah paged through the report, frowning.
